Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, you could be forgiven for wondering: "What was that all about?" These shopping events, invented — like all great consumer festivals — in the US, were designed to transform the Thanksgiving weekend from a time of quiet family contemplation and football into a shopping frenzy at the local mall. Has this succeeded? Yes and no. News agency Bloomberg reported that consumers spent an average of US$289.19 over the four-day weekend. Though this was a drop of $10 on last year, it was still pretty impressive — about R4,000 in spending per person. But did it get feet through the doors of retailers? Not so much. A large slice of money was spent on Thursday, when retailers opened their Black Friday items to Internet shoppers, who surfed for the best deals from their couches. Online sales were up by 18%, while fewer people than last year bothered to go to a store. Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, says: "Thursday has sto...
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